by Silke Oettel

July, 2010

After the success of the first Charity Bike Tour which was held in summer 2008, it was decided that there needed to be a sequel. Not only did everyone have great memories from the 2008 Bike Tour, but thanks to the great work of Iris and Claudia and the generosity of the participants an amount of 333.33 Euro was donated to the Build A School project. For more information please have a look here: http://www.jackiechankids.com/files/Sharing_Lake_of_Constance.html
It was decided to hold another Charity Bike Tour on the Lake of Constance in Austria, with which we wanted to support Jackie’s Charity again.

After many months of planning this was the planned schedule for the 2010 Charity Bike Tour:
- Friday July 23th: Individual arrival of the participants at Claudia’s house in Lustenau, Austria, and a common “Welcome BBQ” in the evening.
- Saturday July 24th: The tour itself along the Lake of Constance. Travelling from Austria to Switzerland by bike, crossing the Lake of Constance by boat over to Germany and cycling again back to Austria.
In the evening there were seats reserved at Haiou’s Chinese Restaurant “Eat” for a delicious dinner. Then After dinner a planned auction with Jackie Chan items. Please stay curious for some unexpected surprises!
- Sunday July 25th: Individual departure of all participants.

Charity Bike Tour 2010 Diary:
In all 15 Jackie’s fans from 4 different countries requested to participate in this private organized event:

1. Kitty, Hendrik, Christine and Thomas from The Netherlands (a family)
2. Gail, Jane, Ben and Dan from the UK
3. Claudia, Martin, Jessie and Lukas from Austria (a family) 
4. Silke, Ralf and Kerstin from Germany

Dan was the first who arrived by plane on Monday July 19th in Austria to help the organizer Claudia with the preparations.
Silke, Ralf, Kitty and her family followed two days later, just after they had experienced the German premiere of Karate Kid in Berlin. After a six hours ride by car from Leipzig they were warmly welcomed in Lustenau at Claudia’s. Dan had experienced the UK premiere of Karate Kid in London on July 15th and so there was immediately a lot to talk about.
On the Wednesday evening Claudia made a local speciality, named “Käs-Spätzle” (handmade pasta with melted cheese and roasted onions). Everybody enjoyed the very much and time flew since there was a lot to talk about. Whenever or wherever Jackie’s fans gather together they love to talk about their common hero!

Day 1: July 23, 2010
After a common breakfast we soon made our way by car to Bregenz. There we wanted to buy the train tickets for those who wouldn’t be able to bike. Just as we left the railway station it started to rain very hard. Everyone began to joke that Jackie’s spirit must have been around, since it started to rain in several places he visited recently.
Next stop on this day was the airport Friedrichshafen, where the next participants were about to arrive by plane: Gail, Jane and Ben from the UK.
Their plane arrived right on time and the arrival area was filled with Jackie Chan fans all meeting and greeting each other. Some of us met for the first time but that didn’t matter at all.
We went by car back to Lustenau, where Gail, Jane and Ben checked in into their hotel. A short time later they joined us at Claudia’s where Kerstin from Germany also joined us.
Now we were complete!
The Coffee, cake and sparkling wine appeared to celebrate the coming together of everyone and success of the event – Cheers! To this event and Cheers! To the man who brought us all together: Jackie Chan!
Suddenly it started to rain again, then things got even worse – Thunder and lightning. This meant we unfortunately had to cancel our plans to have the BBQ outside. Plan B moved into place and everyone had to eat inside. The BBQ grill was then fired up under the roof of the terrace and Chef Martin began to cook.
To shorten the waiting time Claudia provided everyone with a special Jackie Chan crossword puzzle. Everybody had fun with that! Finally the sausages and the meat were ready to eat and everybody took a plate to get something yummy. Pasta salad, bread and fresh fruits completed the meal. Everyone enjoyed this dinner together and gave it our best to eat all the prepared food.
As it still poured outside we had to think about a “Bike Ride - Plan B” just in case the weather didn’t improve the next day. Some of us still wanted to cycle on the course, no matter how bad the weather was and the others rather decided to take the train instead.
So we hoped for dry weather on Saturday and went to bed quite early since we were planning to leave at 8:30 a.m. the next day.

Day 1 Photos:

Day 2 - July 24, 2010
We meet up in the morning again at Claudia’s. The view up to the clouds was wasn’t a positive sight all covered in grey with a drizzle of rain from time to time. That was the kind of weather we absolutely did not need for today! Things then got worse a short time later when a thunderstorm began… This meant we had to put the idea for biking aside since the shop where we wanted to rent the bikes wouldn’t be open due to bad weather, which was confirmed by a call to the bike rental owner. What should we do now? Time for “Plan B”: A ping-pong tournament in the cellar of Claudia’s house, then later complete the intended bike course across three countries by train, boat and walking with umbrellas.
The ping-pong tournament was fun because everybody played against everybody. At the end we all had been winners whilst having tons of fun!
Around 11 a.m. we entered the cars and drove to Bregenz. We parked the cars near the lake and walked along the beach of the Lake of Constance to the railway station. On the way we took some photos from the surroundings, an example being the stage which had been made over the water of the lake and is a venue for the opera “Aida” this year, and also some group and rain photos.
The way from Austria to Switzerland by train went smoothly and we all enjoyed the lovely landscape from the train windows. As soon as we left Germany the rain stopped. When we arrived in Rorschach, Switzerland, we got a lovely surprise: A couple awaited us with coffee and cake near the place where we wanted to enter the boat! Claudia and Martin knew the couple through their connection for Stone Collecting, and had secretly organized the surprise. Everyone enjoyed the lovely surprise very much and Thank you once again!
Around 2:30 p.m. it was time to enter the boat over to Lindau, Germany. We had much fun on the boat; for example Kitty and Jane gave us a demonstration in “sea Tai Chi”. This turned out to be difficult since the boat was moving all the time and they had to work extra hard to keep their balance!
 After a cruise of approximately 1.5 hours we reached the harbor of Lindau in Germany. At first some of us had planned to walk the way back to Bregenz – but it started to rain again! So we ended up changing to a different boat and went back to Bregenz, where we were welcomed with pouring rain! But all this rain couldn’t take away our good mood and we joked once again, that Jackie’s spirit must have been around or at least he must have been thinking about us! But regardless we had visited three countries in one afternoon! Not bad, right?
We made our way back to Lustenau by car because in the evening there were seats reserved for us at the Asian restaurant “Eat” where everybody was looking forward for the dinner and the announced charity auction afterwards. After everybody had changed their wet clothes and got dressed up for the second highlight of the event we met up around 7 p.m. at the restaurant. Those who had participated in the bike tour in 2008 could still remember the delicious food, and the restaurant’s owner Haiou once again didn’t disappoint us! Also our two lovely mascots Little Tiger and Dai Goh joined us here.
After everybody had finished dinner it was time for the planned charity auction. In total we had 42 items, donated to the auction by 5 generous people. Among these items were posters, DVD’s, magazines, clothes, photos and many things more, of course all were related to Jackie.
A flyer promotion in some shops in Lustenau and the local cinema with an invitation to all Jackie’s fans to come to the auction unfortunately wasn’t successful. All items were sold to the participants and even the restaurant’s owner - he is also a fan of Jackie’s - took part and won something. Sometimes the amount from bidding went unexpectedly high!  At the end the table with all the items was empty and everybody was happy with the items they had purchased. The raised amount from the auction was an unexpected big one and it became even more money because some generous participants gave some extra money! Wow!
In the meantime it was late in the evening as we said good night. We wanted to meet up again on Sunday morning for a final breakfast.

Day 2 Photos:

Day 3 – July 25, 2010
To our amazement we were greeted by the sun and the sky was covered barely any clouds – a totally opposite to the weather from the previous days. That was exactly the weather we had needed for the Bike Tour!
Around 9 a.m. we all gathered together for a long “farewell breakfast” in Claudia’s kitchen. Of course the main themes were the weather, all the fun we had with playing ping-pong, the success with the auction and also some plans were already made for future meetings. Everybody was pleased with the raised amount of money.
During the weekend new friendships were built. It is always amazing how fast Jackie’s fans from different countries become friends! Jackie really has a unique ability to bring people together.  
As sad as it was, around 12 o’clock it was time to say good-bye to some of the participants. Kerstin left by car and the rest of us took Gail, Jane and Ben back to the airport of Friedrichshafen, where they had to catch their plane back to London via Frankfurt. Before they left we had a last snack together at the airport. I am sure our group caused some attention since we were taking photos and joking around all the time. The time finally came when they had to pass the security control for their flight. The rest of us rushed up to the rooftop terrace and waited for them until they had to enter their plane. Everybody was waving as long as possible. Bye-bye friends!

Day 3 Photos:

So a wonderful weekend came to an end. Thanks to some generous fans, who couldn’t take part in this event but gave some money as well we are able to donate a total amount of
2010 Euro for Jackie’s charity. It is been a huge pleasure for us to show him our admiration in this way and also our gratitude for all what he does for his fans with his great movies, his music and his unique bond to us. THANK YOU for being such a great role model to your fans, Jackie! That’s why your fans love you!

A huge thanks to Claudia from Austria and Silke from Germany as the organizers of the event.